How to make your brand shoot more personal with Kylie Wright | Boston Photographer

One of the many parts I love about personal brand shoots is the opportunity it creates for you, the client, to reflect on your brand and how you want to be seen. Kylie, CEO of a tech company, has had many “corporate” headshot sessions to show the serious professional side of her job, this time opted to go for a more personal approach with her session.

I loved this approach, as it allowed us to highlight Kylie’s life outside her Back Bay office, creating a very genuine “total package” image of her. She lives near her work, and if you haven’t been to Back Bay, it has so many photo opportunities with the brownstone buildings, Newbury street, restaurants, and green spaces. Pretty much quintessential old town Boston. In capturing her less corporate side, we focused on what she appreciates outside of the office such as her favorite walks in the neighborhood, or her favorite restaurants in the area (which I don’t know how you can pick), rides her Blue Bike to the office, and one of my favorite moments, spending some time engaging with her family and pups. 

For a more casual professional vibe, we concentrated on what she would post to a blog or LinkedIn about, such as how she can take work calls walking down Commonwealth Ave. As a leader, she loves working with her team and considers that one of her happy places.

Updating your personal brand photos with Marty | Boston Photographer

How do you keep fresh content flowing for repeat clients? When someone comes back to update their personal brand photos once every few months or once every year, it’s important that we get it right everytime. We want it to be consistent with their brand, but not redundant from one shoot to the next. Marty Moore’s two shoots are perfect examples of how to properly execute this.

Here are my top 3 things to consider:

Consider location.

I always emphasize how important location is for a brand shoot, but the 2nd or 3rd time around, location plays an even bigger role.

Contrary to what one might think, you don’t want to choose somewhere wildly different. The goal is to choose somewhere that offers new perspectives but is still cohesive with the photos we’ve already shot and the brand story we’ve been telling. For some, that could even be the same location for more than one session. For others, that could mean hunting for the perfect new space to rent for each shoot.

Freshen up the wardrobe.

This will vary from brand to brand, but for Marty’s in particular, his look is the casual suit jacket over a white shirt with jeans or trousers. So for him, we kept it consistent but paid close attention to the smaller details - the cuff links, the watch, the tech accessories.

For other brands, half of the fun in planning the 2nd shoot could be choosing a whole new wardrobe! There are no rules here, so switching up the look or keeping it similar, it’s all good.

Dig into the purpose behind the shoot

Is it for a new product or course launch? Are you offering a new service? Celebrating a big biz milestone?

Whatever the purpose is, this will steer us in the right direction to create brand new content, even if we are shooting on the same neutral backdrop. Planning the right “action” shots is really what guides the story we want to tell.

Marty’s team chose to rent the lovely Newburyport Studio for their shoot. It was my first time shooting there, and wow was it versatile! I can’t wait to shoot there again. Marty’s team once again provided amazing creative direction, and it’s always satisfying to hear they were thrilled with the outcome.

What you can learn from Marty Moore and his brand shoot | Boston Photographer

No Bullsh!t on this brand shoot with CEO mentor, now author, Marty Moore for his book release, “No Bullsh!t Leadership”. It had to be one of the most organized shoots of 2021, which is mostly due to his daughter, and business partner, Emma.

Definitely a powerhouse father-daughter duo.

Emma was pretty much my dream client- she had a clear idea of the visual story they wanted to tell, and came up with a detailed shot list, including inspiration visuals, before our shoot.

The whole family played a part on this brand shoot:

Marty’s wife, Kathy, doubled as a personal stylist and helped get the most natural expressions out of Marty. His leadership skills, particularly his charisma and confidence truly came through in the finished photos. Overall he is a natural in front of the camera!

Determining location is such an important piece in telling your brand story.

More on how to determine the best location for your brand here. Since they needed a very minimal, clean backdrop, we opted for renting a space. After doing a bit of research, I sent Emma three options of potential sites, and let her decide which one best fit their brand and specific look for this shoot. We ended up renting the perfect studio space right in East Boston. 

Oh! And…

if you have that ever growing pile of books you mean to read but haven’t gotten to yet, I encourage you to add this one to the pile, though he also has a podcast for leaders and future leaders. It’s worth a listen on your next drive.